292 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



changing, as are also the channels of the Copper, which spread over a 

 wide river bed at this point. The relay mail station is on the south 

 side of the Chestochena River, close to the bank of the Copper, and at 

 the junction of these two rivers. This point is on the route from 

 Valdez to the gold diggings at the headwaters of the Chestochena, 

 some 60 miles to the northwest, and the mail contractors maintain a 

 trading post in connection with the relay station, with Mr. Harry 

 Fane, who also acts as mail carrier between the Tanana station and 

 this point, in charge. This station is 160 miles from Valdez. 



South of the Chestochena station the soil has a depth greater than 

 that on the north side of the pass, and here the valley of the Copper 

 is largely made up of broad level benches, that rise one above another 

 as one goes back from the river. Some of these benches are some- 

 what sandy and probably would be rather dry during the summer 

 months; others would retain moisture for a long period. Prospectors 

 speak with enthusiasm of fine farming lands toward the headwaters of 

 the Gakona and Tazlena rivers, and there is good land near the mouth 

 of each of these streams. 



The Gakona is some 200 feet wide, and is crossed by a ferry for men 

 and goods, while horses have to swim.' This is a difficult stream to 

 cross, on account of rocks and rapid water. People have been 

 drowned in attempting the crossing. 



The Tazlena, the next stream of importance, is easy to ford except 

 in time 'of high water. From this stream into Copper Center, a dis- 

 tance of 12 miles, there is arf especially favorable section from an 

 agricultural standpoint. The land stretches back from the river in 

 level benches, and the soil is a dark rich-looking loam. A good por- 

 tion of the tract has been burned over the past season and could be 

 cleared easily. There are some large trees, but the timber is mostly 

 small. It is impossible to say how m v uch good land there is in the 

 Copper River Valley. From my hurried trip 1 have no definite knowl- 

 edge of the land except that along the trail, but from what I saw, and 

 from the opinions of others that I met and talked to, there is certainly 

 a very large area in the Copper River Valley that is all one could wish 

 for in soil and exposure from the standpoint of the agriculturist. 

 People throughout this section quite generally believe that there is an 

 agricultural future for the Copper River Valley. 



At Chestochena station agriculture in Alaska was being discussed, 

 when two old miners who formerly worked in the upper Sacramento 

 district in California entered the cabin. One of them immediately 

 expressed the opinion that the first man who came into the country to 

 farm should be hanged. He blamed the farmers of the Sacramento 

 Valley for the closing of the hydraulic mines on the upper part of that 

 river, and he seemed to imagine that farming in Alaska would be detri- 

 mental to the mining interests of the Territory. The same man spoke 

 highly of the upper valley of the Gakona River as a farming country. 



